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English and French Teaching Volunteer Work

Activities : Care Work / Childcare / Education / Languages / Teaching / Work Placements
Company : Projects Abroad
Country : Tobago

Info

You can gain work experience teaching in secondary schools in Togo and no TEFL or other formal teaching qualification is required. Whether you want to volunteer teaching during your gap year, career break or holiday you will have a role to play and your efforts will be greatly appreciated.

The impact you have on the lives of your students will be obvious and long-lasting, but you will also be part of a much wider volunteer network, which is making a really positive contribution to the communities in which we work.

Teach English and French Language in schools with Projects Abroad

You will be placed in a secondary school in the city of Lomé. Characterised by bare concrete classrooms with no glass in the brick-latticed windows, the schools may be large but they are not well equipped. They look basic from the outside and inside often lack even the most basic facilities. Your main resource will be a blackboard, a piece of chalk and most importantly yourself. You will start off as a teaching assistant and once you have found your feet you can often take over the class. Don't worry, the local teacher will always be available to help and advise in your lessons.

You'll generally be asked to take the timetabled English classes for a range of ages within the school. You will have a curriculum to follow and the local staff will help you with planning your classes. Your encouragement, praise and some fun lessons are often all that are needed to spark an interest in the language and a desire to try harder. Volunteers who speak good enough French can also get involved in French language classes.

Because of the heat, school finishes for most students at midday. In many schools volunteers have set up popular English clubs which run for an hour once a week for each year group after the main school day has ended. The clubs give you a chance to move away from the main school curriculum and enjoy debates, drama or songs and games with the children. The clubs can go a long way to increasing the student's enthusiasm for languages and even persuade some students to keep up their English studies into further education.

If you are interested in sports, particularly football you could also help to coach the school football team. Alternatively, after a hard day's work you may just want to go and spend a few hours lying on the beach with other volunteers!